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The Case of the Murdered Apprentice
The Case of the Murdered Apprentice is the sixth short story in the anthology Biggles Air Detective which was first published in May, 1950. By this time, Biggles was already a Detective Air-Inspector. His promotion took place in Another Job for Biggles which was serialised as Biggles in Arabia from February 1950, predating the Air Detective by 3 months. In the anthology, this story is preceded by The Case of the Brilliant Pupil and followed by The Case of the Stolen Aircraft. The story was adapted in French in comic form and included in the small format comic series Temeraire issue #108, published in September 1967 under the title La disparation du pilote. The artist was Roger Meillies. In 2000, Miklo published another comic adaptation entitled the Le Meurtre d'Edmund Teale as part of the book Biggles alias W.E. JOHNS - L'album du centenaire. Synopsis Biggles investigates a case of an aircraft apprentice who disappeared from a village in Essex and whose body was later found on a beach on the Dutch coast. Plot (Click on expand to read) Biggles is lamenting about how the Air Police is overstretched. Aircraft can almost make a man appear in two places at the same time. Air Commodore Raymond tells him he has a case which has precisely this feature. An aircraft apprentice named Edmund Teale had arrived at the station at Buckbury but had missed the last connecting bus home. He proceeded on foot by a country path on a four mile walk home at eleven p.m. He never arrived. Six hours later, his dead body had been found washed up on a beach in Holland. He had been shot by a Luger bullet. For Biggles, this implies that the body must have been carried in an aircraft. Since the body could not have been dragged on board in mid flight, the aircraft must have landed somewhere along the path he walked. Biggles surmised that perhaps Teale had seen the aircraft on the ground and had seen a little too much. The map shows the only possible landing area along Teale's route was the Larford Hall estate. Biggles sends Algy and Bertie to do a photo reconnaissance of the area. Meanwhile he calls the local police Sergeatn Winskip for background. Larford Hall had been rented by one Mrs Karena Vanester, a Dutchwoman lately from Java. She ran a high-class milliner's on Bond Street. Biggles and Ginger visit the shop and find that it sells an expensive hat with feathers of Ragiana, a kind of Bird of Paradise. It is illegal to kill such endangered birds by British law, so how did she get the feathers? Most of these birds are found in New Guinea, part of the Dutch East Indies. Vanester's Java origin begins to link up. After checking the air photos, Biggles, Ginger and Bertie drive down to Buckbury. Biggles calls on Mr Green, the postmaster, who tells him Vanester often sent mail and occasionally cablegrams to one Rudolf Lurgens in Holland. Biggles sends a cablegram to Lurgens asking him to come urgently to discuss new business and signs it off as "Karena". As night falls, Biggles and co. take the country path by Larford Hall. They find Teale's haversack and then a Luger cartridge case. Bertie is stationed to disable the aircraft should it come in. Meanwhile Biggles and Ginger visit Mrs Vanester. She claims the feathers from Lurgens, her brother, were just a present, and his landing was simply to visit her. Just then Lurgens arrives and enters the house. Biggles announces that he is under arrest for murder but Lurgens does not go easily. He draws his pistol. Biggles, just as fast, draws his. They fire together and both are injured. Biggles is hospitalised for a week. Lurgens was on his way to recovery but tore his stitches in an escape attempt and died from complications which arose. Mrs Vanester was deported as an undesirable alien. Characters The Special Air Police *Air Commodore Raymond *Biggles *Algy Lacey *Ginger Hebblethwaite *Bertie Lissie Others *Edmund Teale *Sergeant Winskip *Mr Green *Mrs Karena Vanester *Rudolf Lurgens Aircraft *Lurgens' Fokker Ships Places Visited *Gatwick, Air Police Operations Room *Buckbury, Essex *Larford Hall Mentioned Research Notes *Biggles does not fly an aircraft in this story (except in the adaptations). *This is one of the rare occasions when Biggles was actually wounded and hospitalised. References to the past Incongruities Chronology Category:Short stories Category:Biggles short stories Category:Air Police era short stories